THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 199 
temporal. In these two particulars it agrees with Capellini’s figures, and one is 
led to infer that in the skull examined by Carte and Macalister the malar was 
reversed and out of its natural position. Eschricht’s figures (37, pl. 9) agrees with 
Capellini’s and with the Massachusetts skull. In the latter the lachrymal is want- 
ing, but the malar has an anterior flat process which fits in between the maxillary 
and frontal, and may be supposed to represent the lachrymal, which has become 
fused with the malar. (See plate 26, fig. 2.) 
In the details mentioned above,—the shape of the nasals, maxillsx, ete-—Capel- 
lini’s figure agrees rather with the American skull than with the Norwegian, while 
Eschricht’s figure corresponds most closely with the latter. It should be remem- 
bered that the Massachusetts skull and that figured by Capellini are from young 
individuals, while the Norwegian skull in the National Museum and that figured by 
Eschricht are from adults. It is probable that some of the differences observable 
are due to age. 
On the whole, there is nothing tangible on which to base a distinction be- 
tween the American and European specimens, while in proportions, as shown by Sir 
Wm. Turner’s measurements, there is the closest agreement, amounting to identity. 
A separation of American and European specimens on the basis of cranial characters 
does not, therefore, seem warranted. 
SKELETON, 
Of the descriptions of the skeleton of the European B. acuto-rostrata given by 
Van Beneden and Gervais, Van Bambeke, Carte and Macalister, and other writers, 
two, three, or all agree in assigning to B. acuto-rostrata the following characters: 
Neural spine of the atlas very short or rudimentary ; spine of the axis larger, and 
its parapophyses and diapophyses united to form a bony ring; diapophyses of the 
7th cervical next in size to those of the axis, and followed by those of the 6th cer- 
vical; neural spines of the 3d to the 5th cervicals rudimentary; parapophysis of 
the 7th cervical reduced to a tubercle; diapophyses of the 3d to the 5th cervicals 
directed backward, those of the 6th and 7th cervicals forward; centra of the lum- 
bars increase in length from the beginning to the end of the series; inferior process 
on last lumbar strong; lumbar neural spines at the maximum as regards size; lum- 
bar diapophyses equal to those of the last dorsal; caudal centra not longer than 
those of the lumbars; last caudal diapophysis and neural spine on the 36th verte- 
bra; neural spine replaced by a trough on the 39th vertebra; first vertebra with 
perforated diapophysis, the 85th; chevrons, nine, decreasing in length from 2d to 
9th, the Ist small, 14 times the length of the second, the 2d longest, and the 3d 
broadest antero-posteriorly ; ribs increasing in length from 1st to 4th, the first short- 
est and widest; scapula with the acromion recurved. 
The skeleton from the coast of Massachusetts, No. 20931 (plate 27, fig. 2), pre- 
sents the majority of these characters, but shows the following slight variations: 
The diapophyses of the 3d to 5th cervicals are transverse rather than directed 
backward, The 4th, 5th, and 6th pairs of ribs are of the same length (26 inches in a 
straight line) and are the longest of the series. 
